My rankin‘s dragon never leaves her hide!

[Aleeeexli]

I need help with my rankin‘s dragon!!

I have three rankin’s dragons. They are all about 9 months old. The one this post is about is alone in a tank, the other two are together for now.

She was always a bit shy but still walked around in her tank and loved to hunt the insects and already ate so many vegetables. We had her together with another baby dragon wo sadly died soon after we got them, which was at the beginning of the year (we only had them for a month at this point). Since then she is very shy, basically never comes out of her hide. I have trouble getting her to eat.

We went to the vet, he tested eveeything possible and said she is fine, just shy and there is nothing he can do. We also went to get a second opinion, same answer.

It it now months later and she still just hides every day. If I take her out of the tank, I can get her to eat some insects, in the tank she won‘t eat at all. When I take her out, she walks around a bit and I place her back in under the heat lamp where she stays for a few minutes and then hides again.

I also talked with a few people that specialize in keeping reptiles and checked the temperature and everything with them. Even adjusted it so it is a bit warmer than usual which didn‘t change her behavior.

I am at a loss. She doesn‘t get much UV light and I am worried about her health. I also don‘t know if it is good to take her out to feed her, as I don‘t want to stress her out even more. But I also don‘t want to starve her. She changed so much since the other dragon died. I don‘t know if there is a connection between his death and her behavior.

Please, if you have any tips on what I should do, tell me! I don‘t know how to help her anymore and I am worried every single day about her.

 

[KarrieRee]

I need help with my rankin‘s dragon!!

I have three rankin’s dragons. They are all about 9 months old. The one this post is about is alone in a tank, the other two are together for now.

She was always a bit shy but still walked around in her tank and loved to hunt the insects and already ate so many vegetables. We had her together with another baby dragon wo sadly died soon after we got them, which was at the beginning of the year (we only had them for a month at this point). Since then she is very shy, basically never comes out of her hide. I have trouble getting her to eat.

We went to the vet, he tested eveeything possible and said she is fine, just shy and there is nothing he can do. We also went to get a second opinion, same answer.

It it now months later and she still just hides every day. If I take her out of the tank, I can get her to eat some insects, in the tank she won‘t eat at all. When I take her out, she walks around a bit and I place her back in under the heat lamp where she stays for a few minutes and then hides again.

I also talked with a few people that specialize in keeping reptiles and checked the temperature and everything with them. Even adjusted it so it is a bit warmer than usual which didn‘t change her behavior.

I am at a loss. She doesn‘t get much UV light and I am worried about her health. I also don‘t know if it is good to take her out to feed her, as I don‘t want to stress her out even more. But I also don‘t want to starve her. She changed so much since the other dragon died. I don‘t know if there is a connection between his death and her behavior.

Please, if you have any tips on what I should do, tell me! I don‘t know how to help her anymore and I am worried every single day about her.

Please go over the lighting I am going to flag your post to AHBD shes more familiar w/ rankins
@AHBD

 

[xp29]

If she won't bask i would consider taking the hide out for a bit. She needs the uvb also
Where is she located? Can she see you moving about doing your normal stuff? I bought a dragon in December and he steadily got more jumpy and harder to handle, he started to refuse to eat. He couldn't see well from where i had him. I moved him to where he could see everything going on and after only a week or so he has started to be better behaved.

 

[AHBD]

It is possible that she misses having a tankmate. Other than that she may snap out of it in the future but not sure what else could prompt more activity. Taking the hide out might work, putting it back in at night as a familiar sleeping spot.

 

[Aleeeexli]

Please go over the lighting I am going to flag your post to AHBD shes more familiar w/ rankins
@AHBD

I have a 150x80x80 tank with an Arcadia UV 12% tube. Additionally I have two heat lamps on one half of the tank. I recently had to switch the lamps as it got warmer where I live and I do not remember the wattage of the lamps but I will check once I am home and update my comment!

The warm side is about 32 degrees, the hottest point more or less 41 degrees abd the cold side 28 degrees celcius. I discussed it with the vets and people with more experience in keeping rankins dragons and they said I should increase the temperature on the cold side as she is only hiding. Otherwise she might hide even more or wants to brumate. Usually I kept the cold side about 25 degrees.

 

[Aleeeexli]

It is possible that she misses having a tankmate. Other than that she may snap out of it in the future but not sure what else could prompt more activity. Taking the hide out might work, putting it back in at night as a familiar sleeping spot.

Yes this might be. But she is smaller than my other dragons, despite being the same age. So I am worried about putting them together. Additionally, I don‘t want to stress her out more in case this is not the problem.

Same for the hides, I did this a few weeks so she gets more light but as soon as I put them in she hid again and nothing changed. I don‘t know if I should continue this or if I am making things more stressful for her.

 

[Aleeeexli]

If she won't bask i would consider taking the hide out for a bit. She needs the uvb also
Where is she located? Can she see you moving about doing your normal stuff? I bought a dragon in December and he steadily got more jumpy and harder to handle, he started to refuse to eat. He couldn't see well from where i had him. I moved him to where he could see everything going on and after only a week or so he has started to be better behaved.

I took the hides out for a few weeks so she gets more light but as soon as I put them in she hid again and nothing changed. I don‘t know if I should continue this or if I am making things more stressful for her.

I was actually worried about the opposite. She can see me moving but maybe that scares her and she needs it more silent? But I don‘t have such a space where she can be on her own without really seeing me (or my roommates).

 

[KarrieRee]

I took the hides out for a few weeks so she gets more light but as soon as I put them in she hid again and nothing changed. I don‘t know if I should continue this or if I am making things more stressful for her.

I was actually worried about the opposite. She can see me moving but maybe that scares her and she needs it more silent? But I don‘t have such a space where she can be on her own without really seeing me (or my roommates).

Let's have ahbd chime in on cause here
@AHBD

 

[AHBD]

Try just removing them for the daytime, putting them back in the evening an hour or 2 before lights out.